A Statistical Analysis of Recent Nineteenth-century French Scholarship

Using data from the MLA International Bibliography (1969-76), this survey records the number of studies each year and the total for the eight years covered on each author who received a minimum of five studies. 80 authors (28%) inspired 95% of the studies reported; the remaining authors (71%) inspired only 5% of the studies. The most "popular" authors, in descending order: Balzac, Baudelaire, Stendhal, Flaubert, Zola, Chateaubriand Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Hugo and Nerval. (WTB)